Fire-safe construction and safety are major concerns for the building materials and construction industry. The 2006 U.S. Fire Administration statistics on residential and commercial fires in the U.S. alone include 3,245 fire fatalities and an estimated $11.3 billion in property damage. These numbers underscore the seriousness of the issue and the need for fire-safe construction.
One way to improve the fire-safety of buildings is to follow construction guidelines for fire prevention and damage mitigation, which include detailed recommendations regarding structural design, assemblies, sprinkler systems, smoke detectors, and other factors influencing how a fire might start and spread throughout a building. In addition, companies that manufacture building materials from wood have taken steps to make their products inherently more fire-safe. Some companies have experimented with coating or impregnating wood products with fire-retardant chemical treatments. One example of such a treatment is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,245,842, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference. Another illustrative example can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,968,669.
Although conventional fire-resistant coatings can help improve fire-performance, they are not without shortcomings. Many commercially available treatments protect wood from flame spread and/or direct combustion; however, they do not provide much improvement in extending the time a wood element can sustain a structural load in a fire event. In a building application, premature failure can occur in some load carrying wood products subjected to a fire event. Extending the duration these products can sustain structural loads in a fire event would provide additional time for the occupants to vacate the building. In addition, some of the conventional treatments applied do not provide the required durability for the wood product. For example, during the construction process, water durability can be particularly advantageous. Finally, many treatments that can achieve the desired results are very expensive and cost prohibitive to manufacture on a large scale.
Thus, there is a need in the industry to develop improved coatings for wood products that provide fire-resistant properties. Specifically, there is a need to develop fire-resistant coatings for wood products that remain effective when exposed to prolonged exposure to water and extend the time these products can sustain a structural load during a fire event thus providing for improved occupant safety. In addition, a durable fire-resistant coating that slows flame spread would also be useful.